Vital Spurs Debate Section

Match Thread – Can Dinamo Harry Upset Zagreb’s Firm Or Will A Sonny Gareth Moura Bale Out Spurs

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Although the Fulham clash proved to be a bit tight and tricky for Tottenham Hotspur, there is little doubting we have better found our attacking groove again with 13 goals coming in our last four games.

The latest awesome foursome being the 4-1 demolition of Crystal Palace last Sunday, but Thursday evening’s Europa League test will be a different story as we face Dinamo Zagreb on home soil in our first leg of the Round of 16 tie.

The players should certainly continue to be in good spirits after our return to winning ways lately, but we can undoubtedly expect manager Jose Mourinho to again make changes. The only question is how many changes as plenty of fans would like to see him continue with our forward line as they are now really developing a better understanding with Gareth Bale, and it’s no surprise to see our upturn in form linked with his own personal improvements.

So do we go strong and hope to establish a lead and then use our substitutes to the full in the second period to rest people, or do we rest people now and think longer term and for example, get decent minutes into Giovani Lo Celso who may return for this one following his spell on the sidelines.

With confidence and optimism boosted recently, it’s all to play for again and let’s just hope, regardless of any changes, we see a continuation of our attacking threat.

Apologies for the headline, I’m in one of those moods.

Dinamo Zagreb

Win

Draw

Lose

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  • Geofspurs says:

    Who’s second?

  • Geofspurs says:

    Looks like I am!

    Every day seems like match day at the moment. I wonder how the players are feeling?

    Let’s get a healthy lead at home and cruise through the return. 4 – 0.

  • jod says:

    One thing I’ve got to give Jose a bit of credit for is he clearly thinks more about rotation than Poch ever did. He says himself he’d rather not have to do it but understands he doesn’t have a choice. For this game I’d give Son a rest as he has probably played more football than anyone and is looking slightly jaded to me. I’m not really sure what state Bale is in, he rarely plays 90 minutes but is starting regularly now so who knows. I would start Kane as its the home leg and if we can win it in this game it means we can leave him at home for the return leg. I like Moura as a ten but for this game I’d bring in Dele and maybe start Lucas on the left in place of Son, alternatively play Bergwyn there. The midfield is problematic, take out Holberg and its much weaker but he can’t play every game, lets hope Skipp makes the grade next season. N’Dombele got a rest against Palace so he should be ready to start. Not sure what you can do with the defence, to me we’ve never replaced Vertonghen and are crying out for a left sided central defender. You don’t need to rotate central defenders so much so its probably best to stick with same pairing as much as possible.

    Normally we’d be moaning about being forced to play the home leg first. But given it means Arsenal have to travel and we don’t this might work in our favour. Besides, if we can’t beat this team regardless of which order the legs are played we don’t deserve to get through.

  • block 108 spurs says:

    An interesting selection jose has to do. I expect a fairly strong team with HK10 on the bench, Dele in for lucas, lo celso and dier with davies aurier / doherty, sanchez. We need another clean sheet to prevent Dynamo away goals double threat. Spurs 3-0 win Geof. 🙂

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    I had forgotten that Lo Celso will hopefully be back tomorrow, if so it’s likely he won’t be expected to play the whole 90 but getting some minutes under his belt would be very useful and prepare him for a subs role at the Emptycrates on Sunday.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    What do we think of the idea of playing Dier as defensive mid to give Hojbjerg a break? I personally don’t trust Winks or Sissoko in the role and we know Dier has a fair bit of experience in this position.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    I watched the Juve v Porto match last night….boy, what a great game of footie!

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    With regards to tomorrow’s game…….I have always been an admirer of players and teams from the Balkan regions, there is one quality they all generally demonstrate which is a great work ethic, even if their technical ability isn’t always obvious.

  • Geofspurs says:

    TQ …. I’d put South Koreans in the same category. They rarely stop running.

  • PompeyYid says:

    Lets all be honest, we have no bloody idea what JM will do as in picking the team for tomorrow, remember he will have one eye on the NLD on Sunday.

    Yes we all have great in our minds what the team will/should look like for tomorrows fixture, there are some really good thoughts, but to be honest I really do not know!

    Who plays instead of who, who’s fit enough, do we take risks on certain players getting injured, just 3 questions JM will be asking himself.

    But in the end no matter his decision, like it or not, we have to back him, and hope the players picked have the correct mindset and get a good win v D Zagreb.

    A good/nice win tomorrow for me. COYS

    • Geofspurs says:

      PY …. Totally agree with your first sentence, which is why I try not to get involved in team selection discussions.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    Yes that’s true Geof.

    If we are to continue to challenge in the league and europa (with the Carabao final in mind too) we are going to have to rely on the whole of the squad playing their part. I am disappointed that Rodon wasn’t included in the europa squad but appreciate that another non homegrown would have been left out to do so. It doesn’t appear that he is trusted to start PL games yet so he isn’t playing any part at all putting more pressure on the 3 regulars.

  • Niall D says:

    Team selection is indeed a Conundrum, as a couple of us discussed at the tail end of the last thread.
    We’re thinking that we had just gotten to a stage where our team were starting to jell and (perhaps) turn a corner, I think Frank nailed it when he said something like we were actually playing like a Spurs team.
    The quandary now is, do we rest those guys for Sundays game, and take a risk to get a result with our fringe players, who are good players but don’t play as a competitive team too often, do we play the mainstream guys and risk injury to some, given we are starting to head to the “pointy end” of the season and we are just a couple of points off top 4.
    Similarly I don’t want our “2nd” stream going out and perhaps heading toward a draw or even losing by a goal and then we have to bring the calvary on to chase a result.
    I would at a push be of an opinion to rest at least HK, Bale, Sonny, Hoj, and Tobs.
    As some have said the like of Zagreb historically are fit and skillful teams, for me, much like some of the better German sides, we just need to be careful in this one, they could prove dangerous.

    • PompeyYid says:

      Niall, good post there, think on that you do not have that conundrum, that’s why JM gets the big bucks. COYS

  • Niall D says:

    PY true m8 I’ll sleep soundly tonite :-).
    Agree with TQ (the cat) re Rodon, would ve been good to get him “blooded” in some of our earlier euro games. When I last saw him play, he looked handy enough but needs work.
    Still wondering why we missed out on the likes of Godfrey though. Ready made really.

    • PompeyYid says:

      Niall, sleep well mate, one less thing to worry about eh! lol!

      One for TQ here, I ain’t a cat lover, wouldn’t hurt one though, am a dog n birds, feathered, lover, mind I bet you have a Tiger in your tank, old enough to remember that eh!

      All the best n keep safe both of you. COYS

      • TQ2Spurs says:

        Funnily enough tigers are my favourite of the big cats. Domestic cats are a pain, both of my immediate neighbours have one and they love using my freshly tilled soil as a toilet. 🙁

  • jod says:

    If we ever want to make rotation easier we need to sort out the number of foreign players . As long as we are right up against the limit we will have problems. Its been going on for years but we never seem to get any nearer sorting it out. Take Skipp, the suggestion is he could well end up replacing Winks. It may well happen but if it does it’s replacing one English player with another which leaves us in exactly the same position. If we did get the left sided central defender I think we need then he’d better be English qualified. Otherwise we’d have to lose a player just to bring him in.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    Poor old Soton leaking goals again at City but I guess that’s all good with you PY! :- )

    • PompeyYid says:

      TQ, your so right there, how did you work that out lol!

      But give Scum their dues they kept trying bless em Lol! COYS

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    Can we have a whip round to see if we can raise enough to buy Upamecano? 🙂

  • TK says:

    Wow. Dayotchanculle Oswald Upamecano. How do we get that to fit on the back of a jersey? Isn’t he going to Bayern Munich?

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    He’s a big lad TK, there will be plenty of room on his shirt. :- )

  • El Jefe says:

    Hi guys, been a while – hope all doing OK and families also – here’s hoping so anyway!

    Want to get a bit about the summer off my chest 1st of all – obviously Bale needs to be re-loaned from the looks of things blatantly now. Also secure Vinny properly for me – I was always in favour of his signing at the beginning and even though shown quite a bit already especially in the EL – think there is plenty more to come as he continues to adapt and develop to us and our football over here in general, etc.

    Then I think it’s obvious that Rose, CCV, Foyth and Gazza (along with Marsh, Tracey, Sterling and Roles) are/should be goners and I would add Aurier to that little list also (despite him having probably his best season so far ever for us – with just 1 yr left of his contract I would not be looking to renew so get him sold and thus finally move for Aarons – it’s pretty obvious but so what’s wrong with that anyway plus that’s 1 more added to the HG list which is vital especially for us given the number of FGNs we currently have on the books and regularly being in Europe every season now!

    Get Aarons in on a Sess style deal – £25m+£5m+Skipp on loan for another season this time in the Prem to sweeten it fully and make sure no 1’s topping us (there’s not much point Skippy coming back yet with Hoj, N’Dom, Winks and Siss all in front of him for now so another year/season of full-time play and experience especially now in the Prem – will be incredible for his overall long-term advancement and career)!

    I might add that there’s quite big differences between Sess’s arrival and Aaron’s potential 1 which could make all the difference to how they started/start their career’s with us – age difference in terms of arrival of nearly 3 years – Sess had just turned 19, Aarons would soon after turn 22, Sess arrived with a serious injury – had no pre-season and missed a large chunk of the opening of the season so completely unable to settle properly – Aarons would hopefully be completely different, finally nobody knows yet what will eventually be Sess’s dominant/permanent position – even with all the games he played for Fulham (and at such a young age) – he alternated between LB, LWB, LW and even RW on occassion – Aarons would arrive with 3 full solid seasons including 1 in the Prem completely playing at RB – this all has to count as to why Aarons could have a totally different start to Sess at Spurs and hopefully would do if we finally make the bloody move happen.

    Finally I think this Andersen fella at Fulham looks very interesting indeed and might even be the better option over for example the much talked about Skriniar from last Summer and perhaps for a good 20m Euros less – as Skriniar was rated at 60m by Inter, whereas apparently Lyon would be looking to make around 10m profit on their 30m totalling purchase (with add-ons included) at 40m Euros to us.

    He sounds like Rodon but with a wealth of experience in comparison on top – 6ft4, comfortable either side of central defence, comfortable on the ball and great distribution, etc, etc, etc. He’s also a Dane so perfect that we will have Hoj fully settled in already should he need help adapting and establishing himself – but probably not even needed as another bonus is he will already have had a season in the Prem at Fulham and thus be used to London life on top as it is as well! He comes with solid experience in Serie A where in his main season at Sampdoria only Brozovic (a top class CM of Inter who we’ve been linked with in the past indeed) had a better long pass success rate (no mention eg of Skriniar here apparently furthermore), then also a season in Ligue 1 with Lyon who choose to break their transfer record paying a total of 30m Euros with add-ons for him (a CB no less), etc and he’s still only 24.

    Given all this as I’ve already said Skipp would remain on loan with Norwich in the Prem next season for my liking, but also Sess and Tanganga also – these 2 need serious Prem minutes ASAP IMHO and about time too.

    I’d hope Aurier, Foyth and Gazza, etc might bring in the equivalent of at least 35/40m Euros which should cover Andersen already hopefully. Then we’d need to find around £60m for: Vinny (42m Euros so hopefully Sterling keeps rising against the Euro into the summer meaning around £35m and then Aarons with the initial £25m I reckon would be needed up front)!

    If we roll that £175m loan with the BofE at 0.5% for another year and hopefully quite a few more after given that ridiculously low rate – I mean all our debt is currently outstanding at over 2% I believe so makes absolutely/completely simple sense, then that will be a great help already for everything regarding our finances. It seems from next season we’ll have full stadia back so that is immediately an almighty bonus especially for us and above all and thus starts getting things back to normal immediately and for sure – but we need more, much more – naming rights deal for the stadium finally a la the sleeve sponsor deal finally signed recently, etc/CL footy again back for us meaning massive bonuses (prize money/TV/corporate/commercial, etc) renewed, etc – this obviously entails hopefully a strong and thus direct finish in the Prem into the top 4 which also brings with it added bonus/prize money as well and finally we need to look to get into that EL final and hopefully even win it as that will defo also increase this season’s revenue extra on top, etc! With all this we should be able to help find that £60m needed to complete my idea of the ideal squad for next season 9w/in natural limits, etc), as well as please us all with the success already starting this season and setting us up perfectly for an all out assault next (top 4, CL place, EL final/win, Carabao cup final also, etc, etc, etc – so let’s wait and see, etc)!

    There’s is only 1 downer and that’s that my 25 man squad would still be only 7HG’s and 18FGN’s meaning 1 hence probably Rodon again missing out in Europe/CL, etc LOL!

    I will quickly add that we should renew with Lloris, Lamela, Sonny and HK10, etc ASAP!!!!!

    Lloris, Hart, Whiteman – Doherty, (Aarons)/Reguilon, Davies – Toby, Andersen, Davy, Dier, Rodon – Hoj, N’Dom, Winks, Siss, Gio, Dele – Bale, Moura, Sonny, Bergs, Lamela – HK10, Vinny!

    Got pretty high hopes for the likes of: Solberg, Lusala, John, Devine, Scarlett, even Mathurin who might be sniffing around the 1st team squad next season already also especially in the cup comp’s (already like this season for example in part for some of them).

    Got some great and at minimum interesting prospects to go out on loan also (in the Prem and so on and so forth, etc) like: Skipp, Sess, Tanganga, Austin, Oluwayemi, Lavinier, Okedina, Eyoma, Fagan-Walcott, Cirkin, White, Bowden, Clarke, Parrott, Etete.

    Getting quickly back to this season – next 4 games before international break are crucial – make or break our season and even next also in terms of CL, etc – hopefully 4 wins and onwards and upwards – most difficult surely on Sunday away to the Scum already – hopefully we can do the business – Sonny, Bale and HK10 firing on all cylinders if hopefully starting and that should be too much surely for anyone ATM and pretty much anytime even LOL – here’s hoping and will be back later to check up follow-ups, etc – basically similar to December when came on here after couple of months again just before our home game against the super Scum at that time also LOL!

    Might quickly add – perfect draw in terms of Man U and AC Milan – our 2 main/direct rivals for the EL being drawn together already for today – absolutely perfect indeed – 1 is going out immediately – hopefully Man Utd if I’m honest and then we should be in pole position quite frankly and if playing our cards right – nothing should really hold us back – not even good progression from the super Scum down the road – a potential final even perhaps against them LOL?!

    Keep well gents (and family) and maybe chat a bit more later/following days!

  • jod says:

    El Jefe – Skipp won’t be in competition with Winks, N’dombele or Sissoko. He’s a defensive midfield player, they aren’t. The only player you can compare him to is Holberg and to me having only one player who can play such a vital position in our set up is asking for trouble, an injury away from disaster. I’m always wary of phrase like “comfortable either side of defence”, is Andersen right or left footed ? because we don’t need any more right footers. We also don’t need any more foreign players. I’d like to have enough English qualified players to have a full squad, something we haven’t had for years. I’m a little baffled as to why Norwich and Fulham would sell us their best players for anything less than a King’s ransom making it that much harder for them to survive in the premier league.

    • Stan Rosenthal says:

      Agree with you about Skipp, jod. We will need him as a deputy for Hojbjerg ASAP.

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